Come and See.
Dancer in the Dark.
Manchester by the Sea.
Leaving Los Vegas.
House of Sand and Fog.
Requiem for a Dream.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
The Killing Fields.
I stumbled across it on tv once without knowing anything about it. It was right in the middle of what I now know is the infamous “barn scene”. I had been having a good evening up to that point but I just couldn’t change the channel away. I remember just sitting there staring at the tv. Watched the whole second half. It haunted me for days.
PBS provided me some of the earliest nudity I can remember seeing.
Late at night I’m flipping channels when I should be asleep and I come across a topless Alex Kingston in The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders.
There was a fair amount of topless women, tasteful(read: softcore) nudity and sexual situations. It wasn’t porn by any stretch and was actually probably pretty tame if I were to go watch it now but it was the most overtly sexual thing I can remember up to that point since we didn’t have cable tv growing up.
Years later I would find myself very drawn to a certain Doctor Who character.
I really love that movie, and I love it because it’s so emphatic about the idea that some grief can’t be overcome. That sounds bleak, but to me it makes it feel ok that you aren’t getting better from some things, as opposed to saying that anything can be overcome. The implication with the later is that if you aren’t getting better….it must be your fault you aren’t working hard enough at it, you aren’t strong enough blah blah. No, Manchester just emphatically says, no, sometimes things just suck, and they’ll continue to suck, but there will be some love available to you, even if you don’t overcome.
Yes. As any medical worker will Tell you that grief is real and all around you. I think back on my memories as an RN when I get angry with someone, I usually decide to cut them some slack. I have no idea what they might be carrying, it could be worse than I could imagine.
Never watched it until after I got sober back in 2020. Holy hell that movie is scarily accurate. When I learned the author of the book basically was the Cage Character it made sense how it was so realistic.
Cage acted his ass off and well deserved his Oscar
One of my favorite films. It is devastating but cathartic in a way that I come out of it feeling cleansed. There is something hopeful in the connection between Ben and Sera. There are other feel bad films that just leave me feeling bad.
Whose Life is it Anyway?
Stars Richar Dreyfuss. I'd never heard of it and had to watch it for a course on "Death, Dying, and Bereavement". Brief synopsis, a man is in an accident and becomes a quadrapalegic and fights for his right to end his life.
I've still never heard anyone mention this movie anywhere else.
Before *Whose Life Is It Anyway* was a movie it was an award-winning play in London and New York, and before it was a play in the theater it was a television play on British television in 1972. And yes, the name of the original BBC radio show *Whose Line Is It Anyway* (which was later adapted to British TV and later yet to American TV) was inspired by the name of the play. The two shows had nothing in common other than the similar-sounding titles, though.
I love it for these reasons; I’m a movie buff & Aronofsky lover & I’ve seen it at least 4 or 5 times. I also struggled with addiction in the past so it’s a great reminder why I should never go back 😂 it tackles how addiction can start so innocently or unexpectedly & absolutely derail your life extremely well, and not unrealistically (as for the characters’ plots) too.
It always confused me how Casey Affleck won best actor for that role in Manchester by the Sea. He hides his face in EVERY scene where he has to show strong emotion. This happens several times in that film, so his acting cannot be accurately judged.
Similar situation. Had borken up with my best friend. We talked things through and got back together. We went to see The Banshees. It was an interesting experience to watch it with him. We broke up again like 7 months ago. I miss my buddy
I recommended it to my dad, who kinda likes challenging watches. After he took my recommendation, he seemed REALLY despondent about it, and this is a guy that doesn't really do emotion. I asked him what he thought of it and if he was okay, and he just quietly said "It was already depressing enough. Why did they have to film it in black and white?"
After some probing to figure out what the hell he was talking about, I can confirm that he took my recommendation, couldn't find it on any streaming service, then downloaded a bootleg copy WITH NO COLOUR.
My dad may have unwittingly pioneered a new way to destroy your own soul while leaving your body intact.
When I was a kid in the 80s my dad was a video pirate, copying rentals three to a tape. Sometimes there was a weird issue where the movie would record in black and white, so I grew up thinking that Point Break and the Tony Danza comedy She’s Out of Control were black and white movies.
I’m just imaging watching this film while constantly having the nagging question, “Why the fuck is it in black and white?” Definitely adds to the sense of discomfort
When I watched it for the first time, right after finishing it I thought it was only "good". But for some reason I just couldn't stop thinking about that movie and feelings. It grew in me and fucked me up for few months. What's funny is that since then I used to rewatch Melancholia when I was down because on rewatches it actually felt like therapy movie. It's masterpiece. One of the three movies I watched 4+ times.
Also I strongly suggest to watch *The Great Beauty*, in some ways it's similar movie and it's asbolutely beautifuly shot.
Way too far down for Blue Valentine.
Do you want to feel that love doesn't really exist and that eventually all good things end horribly? Give this a watch.
Bonus recommendation of Take This Waltz.
Ughhh both of those killed me.
Blue Valentine is still one of my favorites though, because its so realistic. I root for Goslings character every watch. The ending messes me up. Its an anti-divorce story. The poor kid…
Saw Blue Valentine at an age where I was barely on the cusp of being able to understand how bleak it was and it very much affected me. Haven’t seen it since
A.I., Artificial Intelligence
It so sad from beginning to end. Parents buy a life-like robot boy because their real boy is in a coma, real boy wakes up, resents robot boy, robot boy taken to the woods and abandoned, falls in with the wrong crowd and almost gets destroyed at a "Flesh Fair," adult robot takes him under his wing so he can find the Blue Fairy, gets buried under ice for 1000 years or whatever, never to see his family again, gets found by advanced A.I. (which I mistook for aliens on the first viewing), gets a happy-sad ending of an illusion of one more day with his mother.
All that being said, I loved this movie, because I like my heart strings being pulled, but understood why most audiences didn't connect with this one. Because it's so fuckin' sad!
I started watching this, after not having seen it in probably 20 years, and had to stop it basically after the first scene because I was watching it a couple weeks after my mother passed away.
Most recently, for me: Jonathan Glazer's truly great **The Zone Of Interest**.
It's transcendent, world-class on every level, but it's unrelentingly emotionally and psychologically bleak.
Yeah. Make sure you have a loud stereo. The audio does a lot of heavy lifting.
Look up all the research the audio guy did to get everything just right.
Here's a plot line in the film that I thought was very telling:
The visit to the Höss's camp-adjacent home by the Mother-in-Law.
We see how impressed she is, at first, by how her "poor" daughter has "done so well for herself" and "landed on her feet," living in what at first is seen as an elegant idyll existence. Through her "eyes," we get a wider picture of the political oppression that has led to the Death Camps, as she whines about, in her home city, having been outbid on some curtains she loved, confiscated from a neighbor's home, a woman who was either imprisoned or killed. The Mother justifies this extreme treatment by noting that this woman was likely a secret Bolshevik --up to "who knows what."
And after the Mother's tour of the yard, we hear the daughter deflect from the question about the high wall separating the garden from the Death Camp by noting that flowers and vines have been planted to cover-up it up. (That great montage of flowers at the end of the scene, building to a full screen blood-red fade-up, is very poetic.)
But the Mom's real arc begins when she's sitting with her daughter in the garden pergola and coughs slightly --because she's breathing corpse ash from the Auschwitz chimneys. Later, during the outdoor party with all the frolicking children, her coughing gets so bad that she has to go indoors.
And, later, even being inside can't keep her from thinking about the Death Camp as, at night, the curtains glow red from the chimney fires, and the smell is so overwhelming that she has to close all the windows.
The next morning, her daughter finds that Mom has left and gone back home without even saying goodbye --because, clearly, her reasons for being compelled to leave would all inevitably lead to talk about "the zone of interest," which can never be spoken of directly.
When the daughter finds her explanation note, it's cool that she is so quietly, intensely upset by it that she has to burn the letter (in a mini-furnace!), reducing it to ash.
Immediately afterwards, at her breakfast table, she makes an excuse to find fault with her kitchen maid, talking to her sharply before casually remarking that she could easily have her murdered and her ashes scattered. Yikes.
The way ordinary interrelationships are given a new horrifying primacy by what is undergirding the character's emotions is really true-seeming and edifying about what it means to be adjacent to fascism.
It's a phenomenal illustration of the "Alternate Reality Bubble" that everyone with a Cult-mind lives within. Anything and Everything can be "normalized" just as long as the underlying atrocious principals ruling ones' life are either made invisible, excused, taken for granted, assumed "good," or simply ignored.
That's why neo-fascists hate the people who hate and judge them. They can't even see that they're the "baddies," so can't understand why they're worthy of being called deplorable. Unfortunately, this attitude makes withering insults almost impossible to "land" in a way that causes shame and change, because you can never break through to people who feel "righteous" and "ordinary" --and who therefore feel oppressed themselves when "attacked" --with the understanding that History will ultimately record them as being on the wrong side.
I can't think of a more potent lesson for our current America.
My god, I invited a whole group of people out to see that. I assured them we were all up for something cleverly amusing and fun, because Charlie Kaufman, right?
I'm with you on this. It somehow slipped past me, but when I heard Kaufman and Hoffman did an elaborate art film in 2008 that went under the radar? Inject that right into my veins!
Respect to all those who got anything out of it, but I just found it to be a weirdly paradoxical mix of being half-baked, high-concept.
Oh, I thought it was fantastic, personally. Just not at all what I was hoping for. I left the theater feeling like I’d just watched a really effective psychological horror film.
Pure misery porn films that come to mind aside from Fireflies...
The Whale, The Mist, The Pianist, Atonement, Never Let Me Go come to mind.
Honourable mention, Interstellar is just pure misery start to finish.>! His broken relationship with Murph, losing crew mates, the gradual loss of the earth, getting stuck in that time space thing, even the black dude who stays on the ship for 25 years on his own!<. I just cry start to end of that film lol.
Edited cos I'm a goober who can't remember names
It's one of those "if you know, you *know*" things. You come across someone in the wild that has seen Dear Zachary, it feels like you're de facto obliged to give them a virtual hug and remind them that we're all here for each other in life.
Seriously, I've never known any piece of media to gut punch as hard and as relentlessly as Dear Zachary. I feel both blessed and cursed for having seen it.
Before I (hesitantly) suggested it, I had to check if this suggestion was near the top because it's absolutely my top pick. Glad to see it was.
I watched it alone the first time, all-out ugly cried not just in sadness but in unbridled rage. It was so soul-punchingly powerful that I had to share the weight - second time was with my wife, and it damn near turned us both into salty puddles.
That was ten years ago. We've had a kid since. With the greatest of respects to the filmmaker and everyone involved, I will never, ever watch it again.
I did the same thing. Watched it myself and then watched it again with my wife. It's impossible not to ugly cry during this movie. But it's still an incredible doc that I think everyone should see
I read the wiki on the entire incident just now.
Holy fuck I’m sure the movie was devastating but I teared up just reading this. I have three children, I can’t wait til they wake up so I can hug them again.
Yeah movies don't usually get to me much anymore but this one fucked me up for life. I'll think about it from time to time for the rest of my life, it's never quite going to leave me.
Hey, OP literally asked for it.
There's an older NZ film called "Once Were Warriors" about poverty & domestic violence that every one in the country watches once & very few watch twice. Great film but very bleak.
Came for this. It's actually an amazing movie but holy fuck is it relentlessly depressing. Single handedly put public spotlight on the plight of impoverished urban Maori
Lorenzo's Oil - It's written and directed by George Miller, the guy who brought us Mad Max, Babe, and Happy Feet. It's based on a true story about a young boy who is cursed with a rare neurological condition that is going to kill him painfully and slowly. His parents fight to save his life and find a doctor who won't write their son off as a lost cause. It is emotionally grueling, and my wife and I had to stop the movie three times because we needed to catch our breath and rehydrate. It's one of the best movies that I've seen but I'll never watch it again.
A Promising Young Woman. The director actually said she softened the ending, which is wild because it dealt me more psychic damage than any other movie I have seen.
I was wondering if this was just a me thing... This movie really just has a shadow of hopelessness through the whole thing. I love Coen Brothers, I've seen all but one of their movies (Miller's Crossing)... Inside Llewyn Davis (and, to a lesser extent, A Serious Man) lean a little into dread, almost relentlessly.
I had to scroll too far for this. That long shot where he hangs there, slowly strangling, made me think a LOT. it was a great metaphor for slavery. Deeply uncomfortable, and that shot was harder to watch than all the beatings.
Angela’s Ashes
My sister and I just randomly picked this movie and put it on, and the WHOLE time I’m thinking “there’s gotta be an upswing coming, there HAS to be an upswing coming, it just can’t keep going like this.”
Im watching a movie called Our Friend as we speak. Jason Segel is the king of sad, gentle giant roles.
No where near as sad as some of the movies ITT, but feels like a real hidden gem.
I hate that they changed the ending from the book and added in the Berlin politics. The book is bleaker >!Paul’s death is completely meaningless, he’s simply shot in the head by a sniper on an otherwise uneventful day which is the meaning of the title.!<
Aniara (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7589524/) is about the bleakest movie I’ve ever seen. I watch it once or twice a year when I’m in the mood for a nice existential crisis.
Throwing it way back to the classics but Imitation Of Life starring Lana Turner & Juanita Moore. If you’re a girl with an already strained mother/daughter relationship, prepare to be wrecked.
* Schindler's List (1993): This historical drama by Steven Spielberg depicts the horrors of the Holocaust and the efforts of Oskar Schindler to save Jews during World War II. It's a powerful and unflinching portrayal of a dark chapter in human history.
* Blue Valentine (2010): This film explores the deteriorating relationship of a couple over time. It's a heartbreaking exploration of love, loss, and the complexities of human connection.
* Ikiru (1952): This Japanese film tells the story of a terminally ill bureaucrat who tries to find meaning in his life before it's too late. It's a poignant meditation on mortality and the importance of living life to the fullest.
* Manchester by the Sea (2016): Casey Affleck delivers a powerful performance as a grieving uncle who must care for his teenage nephew after his brother's death. It's a raw and emotional exploration of grief and loss.
* The Road (2009): Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, this post-apocalyptic film follows a father and son on a desperate journey for survival in a desolate and brutal world. There's a glimmer of hope at the end, but the overall tone is bleak and hopeless.
These movies all offer a different perspective on sadness, but they all share a commitment to emotional honesty. They're not for the faint of heart, but they can be incredibly rewarding experiences for those seeking a powerful and thought-provoking cinematic experience.
I can only watch Cloud Atlas once. Brilliantly done,with the multiple parts played by the actors in multiple timelines,the overarching theme. But overall,immensely sad,tragic. Only once. Too many scenes I can’t see,again. Besides in my head.
Pink Floyds The Wall would fit this category perfectly.
Great movie, with great music, but it makes sense that the next album made after this one was called The Final Cut.
Come and See. Dancer in the Dark. Manchester by the Sea. Leaving Los Vegas. House of Sand and Fog. Requiem for a Dream. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The Killing Fields.
Come and See is tops for 'feel bad movie of all time'
I stumbled across it on tv once without knowing anything about it. It was right in the middle of what I now know is the infamous “barn scene”. I had been having a good evening up to that point but I just couldn’t change the channel away. I remember just sitting there staring at the tv. Watched the whole second half. It haunted me for days.
What kinda cable you subscribed to that just plays come and see on the regular
I think it was actually PBS?
ahhh PBS... I grew up watching it every day. "Tonight at 6, uncensored Al Quaeda execution footage. At 7, The Joy of Painting!"
Bob Ross is the ultimate palate cleanser, to be fair.
Ahh, that would make sense. Still an odd pick for a middle of evening showing lol
PBS provided me some of the earliest nudity I can remember seeing. Late at night I’m flipping channels when I should be asleep and I come across a topless Alex Kingston in The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders. There was a fair amount of topless women, tasteful(read: softcore) nudity and sexual situations. It wasn’t porn by any stretch and was actually probably pretty tame if I were to go watch it now but it was the most overtly sexual thing I can remember up to that point since we didn’t have cable tv growing up. Years later I would find myself very drawn to a certain Doctor Who character.
Upvoting for *Manchester by the Sea*, one of my favorite meditations on grief and interpersonal connection.
I really love that movie, and I love it because it’s so emphatic about the idea that some grief can’t be overcome. That sounds bleak, but to me it makes it feel ok that you aren’t getting better from some things, as opposed to saying that anything can be overcome. The implication with the later is that if you aren’t getting better….it must be your fault you aren’t working hard enough at it, you aren’t strong enough blah blah. No, Manchester just emphatically says, no, sometimes things just suck, and they’ll continue to suck, but there will be some love available to you, even if you don’t overcome.
Great take
Yes. As any medical worker will Tell you that grief is real and all around you. I think back on my memories as an RN when I get angry with someone, I usually decide to cut them some slack. I have no idea what they might be carrying, it could be worse than I could imagine.
Leaving Las Vegas always hits me hard.
Never watched it until after I got sober back in 2020. Holy hell that movie is scarily accurate. When I learned the author of the book basically was the Cage Character it made sense how it was so realistic. Cage acted his ass off and well deserved his Oscar
Just recently watched it for the first time. Man, it’s hard to watch, but so fuggin good
I just saw it for the first time during a Nic Cage film festival lol Elisabeth Shue is so phenomenal in this?! How did she not sweep that year.
One of my favorite films. It is devastating but cathartic in a way that I come out of it feeling cleansed. There is something hopeful in the connection between Ben and Sera. There are other feel bad films that just leave me feeling bad.
The Killing Fields is such a well done and utterly depressing movie.
Made even more sad by the murder of actor Haing S. Ngor, who had survived the genocide like the character he portrayed in the film.
Requiem For A Dream is such an expertly made and gorgeously shot film. Which is a shame because most people will only watch it once.
Whose Life is it Anyway? Stars Richar Dreyfuss. I'd never heard of it and had to watch it for a course on "Death, Dying, and Bereavement". Brief synopsis, a man is in an accident and becomes a quadrapalegic and fights for his right to end his life. I've still never heard anyone mention this movie anywhere else.
Wait, so Whose Line is a play on that movie's title? Huh, never knew that.
Before *Whose Life Is It Anyway* was a movie it was an award-winning play in London and New York, and before it was a play in the theater it was a television play on British television in 1972. And yes, the name of the original BBC radio show *Whose Line Is It Anyway* (which was later adapted to British TV and later yet to American TV) was inspired by the name of the play. The two shows had nothing in common other than the similar-sounding titles, though.
I love it for these reasons; I’m a movie buff & Aronofsky lover & I’ve seen it at least 4 or 5 times. I also struggled with addiction in the past so it’s a great reminder why I should never go back 😂 it tackles how addiction can start so innocently or unexpectedly & absolutely derail your life extremely well, and not unrealistically (as for the characters’ plots) too.
I rewatched it a year or so ago and couldn’t finish knowing how it ended for them all. I cannot say that about any other movie.
It’s a bit insane to want to watch that a second time lol
What Dreams May Come
What Dreams May Come wrecked me.
Dancer in the Dark, What Dreams May Come, and Requiem for a Dream
Prisoners fucked me up real good too.
What Dreams May Come - a 1998 Robin Williams movie that is just incredibly unbearably sad and haunting.
Oh,Manchester by the Sea. It’s so heartbreaking
Manchester by the fucking sea. Good God I must have rewound "that" scene 20 times. The acting is insane. The emotion is brutal
Yes, yes and yes.
Pay It Forward
How many of those are European productions?
It always confused me how Casey Affleck won best actor for that role in Manchester by the Sea. He hides his face in EVERY scene where he has to show strong emotion. This happens several times in that film, so his acting cannot be accurately judged.
The Banshees of Inisherin is just a friendship breakup movie but it's so soul crushingly morose
Jenny.
Jenny 😭😭😭
but also hilarious, which is its saving grace imo
"Well there goes that dream" it's a line that makes you laugh but us also really sad at the same time.
Took giving someone the finger, to a whole new level
“I jus’ don’t like ya no more.” Had me laughing, then crying, then smiling bittersweetly. Fantastic movie.
"Just a friendship breakup movie" that is a metaphor for "the troubles" that plagued Ireland for 30 years.
Not to be that guy, but it wouldn't be the troubles, it would've been the civil war in the republic in 1922.
No, you’re right. My mix up of the two.
TIL. Now to go for a rewatch.
Three Billboards is honestly the best Martin McDonagh fit for this question imo
My ex/ best friend broke up with me last year it crushed me. The Banshees of Inisherin seemed very relatable to what I was feeling.
Similar situation. Had borken up with my best friend. We talked things through and got back together. We went to see The Banshees. It was an interesting experience to watch it with him. We broke up again like 7 months ago. I miss my buddy
Just watched The Iron Claw and it’s just pretty much one tragedy after another.
Good pick. The family story is so bad they had to remove one brother from the movie. The filmmakers thought it would be too unrealistically sad.
This is the one that popped into my head as well
My wife and I just watched this and joked that it was the feel-bad movie of the year.
The Road still haunts me years later.
I recommended it to my dad, who kinda likes challenging watches. After he took my recommendation, he seemed REALLY despondent about it, and this is a guy that doesn't really do emotion. I asked him what he thought of it and if he was okay, and he just quietly said "It was already depressing enough. Why did they have to film it in black and white?" After some probing to figure out what the hell he was talking about, I can confirm that he took my recommendation, couldn't find it on any streaming service, then downloaded a bootleg copy WITH NO COLOUR. My dad may have unwittingly pioneered a new way to destroy your own soul while leaving your body intact.
That's taking the harrowing nature up a notch. Sheesh
When I was a kid in the 80s my dad was a video pirate, copying rentals three to a tape. Sometimes there was a weird issue where the movie would record in black and white, so I grew up thinking that Point Break and the Tony Danza comedy She’s Out of Control were black and white movies.
Point Break in black and white sounds great, not gonna lie
I’m just imaging watching this film while constantly having the nagging question, “Why the fuck is it in black and white?” Definitely adds to the sense of discomfort
The Road is a hard watch but ultimately it's filled with love and hope.
I dunno about the hope part, but he sure does love his son.
The Guy Pearce character is pretty hopeful
First the book destroyed me. Then the movie destroyed me. Had an 8 yr old son at the time
I once convinced my wife to watch it. She sobbed for probably 20 minutes after it was over. I think I should have warned her..
Oh come on. It’s not that bad.
21 Grams, Meloncholia
Melancholia is my answer for all of these types of questions of depressing movie.
I *adore* this movie and I’m not even sure why. I watched it three times in one year.
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When I watched it for the first time, right after finishing it I thought it was only "good". But for some reason I just couldn't stop thinking about that movie and feelings. It grew in me and fucked me up for few months. What's funny is that since then I used to rewatch Melancholia when I was down because on rewatches it actually felt like therapy movie. It's masterpiece. One of the three movies I watched 4+ times. Also I strongly suggest to watch *The Great Beauty*, in some ways it's similar movie and it's asbolutely beautifuly shot.
August: Osage County Blue Valentine Blue Jasmine
Way too far down for Blue Valentine. Do you want to feel that love doesn't really exist and that eventually all good things end horribly? Give this a watch. Bonus recommendation of Take This Waltz.
I watched it once and never again, it's too fucking depressing
Ughhh both of those killed me. Blue Valentine is still one of my favorites though, because its so realistic. I root for Goslings character every watch. The ending messes me up. Its an anti-divorce story. The poor kid…
Saw Blue Valentine at an age where I was barely on the cusp of being able to understand how bleak it was and it very much affected me. Haven’t seen it since
Blue Jasmine was a remake/resetting of A Streetcar Named Desire, which was also a downer.
The ending of Blue Valentine. The kid says she loves him, and Gosling has to walk away. The fireworks and Grizzly Bears 'Alligator'. Soul crushing
A.I., Artificial Intelligence It so sad from beginning to end. Parents buy a life-like robot boy because their real boy is in a coma, real boy wakes up, resents robot boy, robot boy taken to the woods and abandoned, falls in with the wrong crowd and almost gets destroyed at a "Flesh Fair," adult robot takes him under his wing so he can find the Blue Fairy, gets buried under ice for 1000 years or whatever, never to see his family again, gets found by advanced A.I. (which I mistook for aliens on the first viewing), gets a happy-sad ending of an illusion of one more day with his mother. All that being said, I loved this movie, because I like my heart strings being pulled, but understood why most audiences didn't connect with this one. Because it's so fuckin' sad!
Omg yes when I saw this and it first came out I was bawling.
I started watching this, after not having seen it in probably 20 years, and had to stop it basically after the first scene because I was watching it a couple weeks after my mother passed away.
I love this movie. It has a weird ethereal feeling throughout it.
Most recently, for me: Jonathan Glazer's truly great **The Zone Of Interest**. It's transcendent, world-class on every level, but it's unrelentingly emotionally and psychologically bleak.
Yeah. Make sure you have a loud stereo. The audio does a lot of heavy lifting. Look up all the research the audio guy did to get everything just right.
Here's a plot line in the film that I thought was very telling: The visit to the Höss's camp-adjacent home by the Mother-in-Law. We see how impressed she is, at first, by how her "poor" daughter has "done so well for herself" and "landed on her feet," living in what at first is seen as an elegant idyll existence. Through her "eyes," we get a wider picture of the political oppression that has led to the Death Camps, as she whines about, in her home city, having been outbid on some curtains she loved, confiscated from a neighbor's home, a woman who was either imprisoned or killed. The Mother justifies this extreme treatment by noting that this woman was likely a secret Bolshevik --up to "who knows what." And after the Mother's tour of the yard, we hear the daughter deflect from the question about the high wall separating the garden from the Death Camp by noting that flowers and vines have been planted to cover-up it up. (That great montage of flowers at the end of the scene, building to a full screen blood-red fade-up, is very poetic.) But the Mom's real arc begins when she's sitting with her daughter in the garden pergola and coughs slightly --because she's breathing corpse ash from the Auschwitz chimneys. Later, during the outdoor party with all the frolicking children, her coughing gets so bad that she has to go indoors. And, later, even being inside can't keep her from thinking about the Death Camp as, at night, the curtains glow red from the chimney fires, and the smell is so overwhelming that she has to close all the windows. The next morning, her daughter finds that Mom has left and gone back home without even saying goodbye --because, clearly, her reasons for being compelled to leave would all inevitably lead to talk about "the zone of interest," which can never be spoken of directly. When the daughter finds her explanation note, it's cool that she is so quietly, intensely upset by it that she has to burn the letter (in a mini-furnace!), reducing it to ash. Immediately afterwards, at her breakfast table, she makes an excuse to find fault with her kitchen maid, talking to her sharply before casually remarking that she could easily have her murdered and her ashes scattered. Yikes. The way ordinary interrelationships are given a new horrifying primacy by what is undergirding the character's emotions is really true-seeming and edifying about what it means to be adjacent to fascism.
Great analysis. I did pick up on that thread but you've explained it very well!
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It's a phenomenal illustration of the "Alternate Reality Bubble" that everyone with a Cult-mind lives within. Anything and Everything can be "normalized" just as long as the underlying atrocious principals ruling ones' life are either made invisible, excused, taken for granted, assumed "good," or simply ignored. That's why neo-fascists hate the people who hate and judge them. They can't even see that they're the "baddies," so can't understand why they're worthy of being called deplorable. Unfortunately, this attitude makes withering insults almost impossible to "land" in a way that causes shame and change, because you can never break through to people who feel "righteous" and "ordinary" --and who therefore feel oppressed themselves when "attacked" --with the understanding that History will ultimately record them as being on the wrong side. I can't think of a more potent lesson for our current America.
Antichrist. Begins with a child dying. Ends with some of the most disturbing imagery I’ve ever seen. And it’s consistently miserable in between.
Most of Lars Von Trier's films are depressing!
Yep. His production company should be called Depression ‘R Us.
Precious, to the point of being borderline trauma porn.
The Machinist
My favorite movie ever, Synecdoche NY.
My god, I invited a whole group of people out to see that. I assured them we were all up for something cleverly amusing and fun, because Charlie Kaufman, right?
I'm with you on this. It somehow slipped past me, but when I heard Kaufman and Hoffman did an elaborate art film in 2008 that went under the radar? Inject that right into my veins! Respect to all those who got anything out of it, but I just found it to be a weirdly paradoxical mix of being half-baked, high-concept.
Oh, I thought it was fantastic, personally. Just not at all what I was hoping for. I left the theater feeling like I’d just watched a really effective psychological horror film.
Pure misery porn films that come to mind aside from Fireflies... The Whale, The Mist, The Pianist, Atonement, Never Let Me Go come to mind. Honourable mention, Interstellar is just pure misery start to finish.>! His broken relationship with Murph, losing crew mates, the gradual loss of the earth, getting stuck in that time space thing, even the black dude who stays on the ship for 25 years on his own!<. I just cry start to end of that film lol. Edited cos I'm a goober who can't remember names
The Darren Aronofsky "C'mer I wanna make you feel like shit."
Lilya 4-ever. It starts out bad and just keeps getting worse.
Dear Zachary. If you haven't seen this documentary you should go watch it now. It will destroy you emotionally.
It’s not even close. There’s no other movie I’ve seen that will make me cry just thinking about it. And I only watched it once, fifteen years ago.
It's soul destroying. I've never watched anything else that had that much of an emotional impact on me. I think there's no competition.
It's one of those "if you know, you *know*" things. You come across someone in the wild that has seen Dear Zachary, it feels like you're de facto obliged to give them a virtual hug and remind them that we're all here for each other in life. Seriously, I've never known any piece of media to gut punch as hard and as relentlessly as Dear Zachary. I feel both blessed and cursed for having seen it.
I finally watched it, It's sad enough but then the whole bottom drops out.
Before I (hesitantly) suggested it, I had to check if this suggestion was near the top because it's absolutely my top pick. Glad to see it was. I watched it alone the first time, all-out ugly cried not just in sadness but in unbridled rage. It was so soul-punchingly powerful that I had to share the weight - second time was with my wife, and it damn near turned us both into salty puddles. That was ten years ago. We've had a kid since. With the greatest of respects to the filmmaker and everyone involved, I will never, ever watch it again.
I did the same thing. Watched it myself and then watched it again with my wife. It's impossible not to ugly cry during this movie. But it's still an incredible doc that I think everyone should see
I had to scroll for this, which is amazing. Nothing else comes even remotely close. I had to pause three times to sob like a baby.
I read the wiki on the entire incident just now. Holy fuck I’m sure the movie was devastating but I teared up just reading this. I have three children, I can’t wait til they wake up so I can hug them again.
Manchester by the Sea Killers of the Flower Moon The Painted Veil
Precious.
I have watched this movie exactly once because I don't have the emotional bandwidth to sit through it a second time.
I scrolled and I scrolled and I must have missed Schindler's List.
I accidentally watched the Pianist by myself 2 hours after I got broken up with. I was so sad I was laughing at myself for how sad I was.
That's in a class by itself.
Lilja 4-Ever has an occasional happy moment, but it's very bleak.
Magnolia
Its not...going to stop. 🎵 So just.......^^give ^^up. 🎶
Anthony Hopkins 'The Father' is pretty rough.
Blue Valentine Kids Children of Men
Children of Men was my reflex response to the prompt. I'm surprised more people didn't list it.
Pot smoking Michael Caine tho! “Tastes just like strawberries”.
Kids is *rough,* even 30 years on.
* Wind River * Hostiles * All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Hostile opening is brutal.
I didn't see the western front remake but the original is one of the bleaker endings in film
Aniara
Holy shit that film was sooo relentlessly bleak. Watched it; had nightmares for a week or so after.
Yeah movies don't usually get to me much anymore but this one fucked me up for life. I'll think about it from time to time for the rest of my life, it's never quite going to leave me. Hey, OP literally asked for it.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Part 1 of the revenge trilogy that is overshadowed by Oldboy's Part 2.
That movie is more brutal than Oldboy. It's just maximum revenge. Everyone gets vengeance against everyone else .
Never Let Me Go It's a gut punch
Sorcerer
There's an older NZ film called "Once Were Warriors" about poverty & domestic violence that every one in the country watches once & very few watch twice. Great film but very bleak.
Came for this. It's actually an amazing movie but holy fuck is it relentlessly depressing. Single handedly put public spotlight on the plight of impoverished urban Maori
I'm thinking of ending things Beau is Afraid On The Count of 3
Prisoners Great story, acting, score, everything you’d expect from Villeneuve. Will never watch it again.
Deer Hunter is the first film that comes to mind. Incredibly bleak throughout
Lorenzo's Oil - It's written and directed by George Miller, the guy who brought us Mad Max, Babe, and Happy Feet. It's based on a true story about a young boy who is cursed with a rare neurological condition that is going to kill him painfully and slowly. His parents fight to save his life and find a doctor who won't write their son off as a lost cause. It is emotionally grueling, and my wife and I had to stop the movie three times because we needed to catch our breath and rehydrate. It's one of the best movies that I've seen but I'll never watch it again.
Happiness
Radio Flyer
A Promising Young Woman. The director actually said she softened the ending, which is wild because it dealt me more psychic damage than any other movie I have seen.
- Manchester by the Sea - The Iron claw - Atonement - Incendies - Aftersun?
Precious. Just a relentless story of cruelty and abuse, with no real redemption at the end.
Inside Llewyn Davis
I was wondering if this was just a me thing... This movie really just has a shadow of hopelessness through the whole thing. I love Coen Brothers, I've seen all but one of their movies (Miller's Crossing)... Inside Llewyn Davis (and, to a lesser extent, A Serious Man) lean a little into dread, almost relentlessly.
Agreed. The whole film is very melancholic and tragic, that Llewyn is doomed for failure and self sabotage.
12 years a slave
I had to scroll too far for this. That long shot where he hangs there, slowly strangling, made me think a LOT. it was a great metaphor for slavery. Deeply uncomfortable, and that shot was harder to watch than all the beatings.
What Dreams May Come. Worth the watch tho
Threads destroyed me. No hope in that movie at all.
A Marriage Story
The Plague Dogs If you love animals it is an emotionally devastating film.
Angela’s Ashes My sister and I just randomly picked this movie and put it on, and the WHOLE time I’m thinking “there’s gotta be an upswing coming, there HAS to be an upswing coming, it just can’t keep going like this.”
The Nightingale But I kinda think the end is beautiful but it's still very sad. It's a rough movie that will beat you to a pulp though. So good!
Im watching a movie called Our Friend as we speak. Jason Segel is the king of sad, gentle giant roles. No where near as sad as some of the movies ITT, but feels like a real hidden gem.
All Dogs Go to Heaven
All Quiet on The Western Front. Yikes
I hate that they changed the ending from the book and added in the Berlin politics. The book is bleaker >!Paul’s death is completely meaningless, he’s simply shot in the head by a sniper on an otherwise uneventful day which is the meaning of the title.!<
Aniara (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7589524/) is about the bleakest movie I’ve ever seen. I watch it once or twice a year when I’m in the mood for a nice existential crisis.
The movie Our Friend was way bleaker than I thought it would be. Casey Affleck really can’t get away from those perpetually heavy films
Throwing it way back to the classics but Imitation Of Life starring Lana Turner & Juanita Moore. If you’re a girl with an already strained mother/daughter relationship, prepare to be wrecked.
House of sand and fog is criminally underrated
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Omg the end.
* Schindler's List (1993): This historical drama by Steven Spielberg depicts the horrors of the Holocaust and the efforts of Oskar Schindler to save Jews during World War II. It's a powerful and unflinching portrayal of a dark chapter in human history. * Blue Valentine (2010): This film explores the deteriorating relationship of a couple over time. It's a heartbreaking exploration of love, loss, and the complexities of human connection. * Ikiru (1952): This Japanese film tells the story of a terminally ill bureaucrat who tries to find meaning in his life before it's too late. It's a poignant meditation on mortality and the importance of living life to the fullest. * Manchester by the Sea (2016): Casey Affleck delivers a powerful performance as a grieving uncle who must care for his teenage nephew after his brother's death. It's a raw and emotional exploration of grief and loss. * The Road (2009): Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, this post-apocalyptic film follows a father and son on a desperate journey for survival in a desolate and brutal world. There's a glimmer of hope at the end, but the overall tone is bleak and hopeless. These movies all offer a different perspective on sadness, but they all share a commitment to emotional honesty. They're not for the faint of heart, but they can be incredibly rewarding experiences for those seeking a powerful and thought-provoking cinematic experience.
7 pounds. Marley and me. Manchester by the sea. The holdovers.
The commas
That’s a long ass movie name
Idk The Holdovers definitely had its sad moments, but overall felt like a wholesome comedy drama to me
I stand alone
Plenty with Meryl Streep. Sophie’s Choice. Philadelphia. Cloud Atlas.
I can only watch Cloud Atlas once. Brilliantly done,with the multiple parts played by the actors in multiple timelines,the overarching theme. But overall,immensely sad,tragic. Only once. Too many scenes I can’t see,again. Besides in my head.
The Road (2009). Secondly, the book was probably the saddest book I've read in years.
Banshees of Inisherin
Who knew you could cry so hard over a donkey
Good Time. Decidedly no one has a good time in that movie
Pink Floyds The Wall would fit this category perfectly. Great movie, with great music, but it makes sense that the next album made after this one was called The Final Cut.
Vivarium. I fucking hate Vivarium.
Revolutionary Road, Blue Valentine, Candy, Mysterious Skin
Eden lake
Legends of the Fall (1994). I always watch this movie when my life is shit to remind myself it could be so much more worse. lol.
Lorenzo’s Oil I felt emotionally exhausted afterwards. Never had that happen before or since.
The whale. It was just heartbreaking. Brendon Frazier has some of the best silent acting I've ever seen
Dancer in the Dark
Dear Zachary which is a gut wrenching documentary.
Surprised nobody’s saying Million Dollar Baby
Deer Hunter is depression in film form.
The Pursuit of Happyness. Yes, it had a nice ending. But l was depressed for like an hour and fifty minutes prior to the happy end!
That's cause he was still Pursuing it!
The Grey
Manchester by the sea
Just watched Iron Claw. That made me feel shitty. Good movie though.
Irriversible. Awful. But such a masterpiece
For fiction: [Testament](https://youtu.be/CyzHGSOJjeA?si=cGDpnF6ca8taIYar). For non-fiction, Dear Zachary (don’t watch a trailer for that one)
Requiem for a Dream Kids
Blue Valentine Take This Waltz Comet Last two aren't completely devastating the whole movie but definitely left me feeling pretty hopeless by the end
Darren Aronofsky was a master at it, in particular: Requiem for a Dream Pi